1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to computing equipment and, more specifically to hot-pluggable connections for data communications.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, the data center industry has begun moving towards high speed data transmission (e.g., 10 Gbs, 40 Gbs, and 100 Gbs). This is causing problems with a subset of the cabling used in data centers. Cables connected to patch panels are often used to route signals over short distances (e.g., one or two meters), often between high-spatial-density arrays of connectors, with the signal being delivered to at least one female cable receptacle at a different location from where the panel receives the signal.
Traditionally, patch panels often used RJ45 connections and corresponding cables for this purpose. But RJ45 cables often do no support these newer, faster data rates without expensive and cumbersome duplication of cabling to provide parallel data paths.
Other cables can support faster data rates, but those conventional implementations of those cables are often not suitable for use in patch panels. SFP (small form factor pluggable) SFP+, and QSFP+(quad small form factor pluggable) cables can support these rates in many cases. But such network cabling generally does not have a patch panel equivalent to RJ45 patch panels, to extend an SFP, SFP+, or a QSFP+ socket to an alternate location. For example, for a RJ45, just a jack and plug may be needed to provide an extension, unlike SFP, SFP+, and QSFP+ network cabling. Further, in many cases, SFP, SFP+, and QSFP+ cables only provide male-to-male connections, making it difficult to spatially re-position female connections, like with a patch panel (which may be a single wired connection that performs such a re-positioning or an array of such connections). Accordingly, there is a need for a SFP, SFP+, and QSFP+ patch panels and related cabling.